An interesting picture posted once a day, week, or whenever I feel like it.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Not an iPhone...

... but its good enough for me. On Friday, July 11, the new iPhone 3G went on sale worldwide. I figured with its lower upfront price (I say upfront since AT&T more than makes up or it in the increased price of the data plan over the 2 years of your required contract) many people would dump their iPod Touches. Sure enough, Friday morning there was a gentleman on craigslist looking to sell his 2 month old iPod Touch so that he could get a new iPhone.

When the iPhone 3G was announced several weeks ago, I too was pretty tempted by the specs to get one. Unfortunately the phone comes with what would to me be a wasteful voice/data package. I current have a cell phone with a pay-as-you-go plan and I have trouble using up the $25 I put on my phone every 3 months. So to dump that and start paying AT&T $70/month for the iPhone was just too much. Interestingly AT&T now offers (or will soon offer) the option of purchasing an iPhone without a contact (at the inflated price of $499/$599). With that option one can use a pay-as-you-go SIM card or voice, but my understanding is that the data plan will still be at a high flat rate. Now if AT&T offered a pay-as-you-go service for both voice and data on the iPhone, I may be tempted.

Hence my decision to pick up a used 16gbiPod Touch. It does a lot of what I wanted an iPhone for (the great interface, Wi-fi) and it was relatively cheap and thinner. For the last couple of days, I've had a chance to use the Touch and it certainly hasn't been a disappointment. There are many companies and UI designers that could take a cue from Apple from designing and building elegant and intuitive user interfaces. I'm also amazed by how much on can do with a device that small.